Within the modern technique of cutting or chip removing machining of metallic work pieces, tool systems are utilized that include a large number of tools and tool bodies having different properties and different work tasks. Complete turning, milling and drilling tools, as well as individual tool bodies, may be coupled together with other tool bodies, e.g., adapters and extension details, in order to form complete tools. For this purpose, the individual tool bodies are formed with coupling members included in a universal coupling system common to the entire tool set, e.g., of the type that is commercially available under the trade name COROMANT CAPTO®. In this connection, the different tool bodies generally are formed with through bores, in which there is a female thread for the engagement with coupling details. This bore may also be utilized to feed a cooling liquid or fluid to the active cutting inserts of the tool, with the purpose of cooling and/or lubricating the same. The different tool bodies are stored in an inactive state in at least one magazine adjacent to the machine tool in question, and are picked out individually from the magazine by means of a tool changer, when they are to be mounted in the machine for active operation. The same tool changer also restores the tool body to the magazine after finished operation. In order to make it possible to distinguish different tool bodies, and in order to keep control of the status of the individual tool body, information-carrying chips are built into the tool bodies. More precisely, the chips are mounted in the female thread of the bore mentioned by way of introduction.
Previously, the mounting of the chips has been effected by two washers provided with threads, one of which serves as a stop for the chip, and the other one as a lock member for the chip. Thus, a first washer is screwed in a distance into the narrow section of the bore that has a female thread, in addition to which a chip is fixed or locked by a subsequent locking washer. However, for a plurality of reasons, this mounting technique is inappropriate and troublesome. Thus, it is vital that the chip is located in a predetermined position inside the bore, because otherwise difficulties arise in reading the chip information, since this is carried out by a reader placed in a predetermined position adjacent to the machine. Therefore, in practice, the chip should be located in the immediate vicinity of the shoulder between the narrow and wide sections of the bore, however without projecting from the shoulder surface. Since the internal bore is not visible from the outside of the tool body, the screw-in of the first stop washer, which determines the final, axial position of the chip in the bore, is fussy and difficult to master. If the stop washer is screwed in too far, the chip is located in an erroneous position. Another disadvantage of the known mounting technique is that not only the two washers, but also the chip requires a central hole in order to allow the cooling liquid to pass through the tool body. However, since the narrow section of the bore has a limited cross-section area, the possibilities of constructing the chip and the washers with desirably wide holes are limited. Thus, the manufacturers of the chips have been compelled to limit the size of the central hole in such a way that the cross-section area thereof becomes smaller than the cross-section area of the outlet from which the cooling liquid is fed into the tool body. In other words, the chip and the appurtenant washers form an obstacle to the free flow of the cooling liquid through the tool body.
The present invention aims at overcoming the above-mentioned problems by providing a new chip holder, as well as an expedient mounting device for the mounting of such a chip holder in a tool body. Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a chip holder that allows the information-carrying chip to be located in a reliable way in a correct, predetermined position, in which an external reader can read the chip information in a distinct and reliable way. It is also an object to provide a chip holder that has a good capability of letting cooling liquid pass in order to, in such a way, reduce or eliminate the flow-obstructing effect of the chip. It is also an object to provide a chip holder that is simple and inexpensive to manufacture, and that increases the latitude to construct the proper chip in an optimal way. The chip holder should also be simple to mount by means of an expedient mounting device.
The invention also aims at providing an expedient device for the mounting of the chip holder according to the invention. In this aspect, an object of the invention is to provide a device that in a reliable way ensures that the chip holder gets a precise, predetermined position in the narrow section of the cooling-liquid bore. An additional object is to provide a mounting device that allows a simple, quick and comfortable mounting of the chip holder, in spite of the fact that the same is not visible from the outside of the tool body.